LET'S HELP PATIENTS IN PAIN

It's time for Wisconsin to join the growing number of states that
give their ill and ailing citizens a wider array of health care options.

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act would allow patients and
their doctors access to a medicine that has fewer side effects than
many addictive, legally prescribed pharmaceuticals on the market that
are taken by millions of Americans every day.

It is time we help people like Teresa Shepherd.

Teresa is a 34-year-old mother from West Bend, who looks every bit
the fit gymnast who loves biking and martial arts - things she did
before she was hit by fibromyalgia, affecting her muscles and causing
chronic pain.

Before Teresa was diagnosed seven years ago, she hated to even take
aspirin. She now has been prescribed as many as 12 medications at
once, which made her feel worse.

"I was dizzy, throwing up, I had no appetite at all and could not eat
because of the pain," she said privately after sitting in the
audience of a press conference where Sen. Jon Erpenbach and I
introduced this bill. "The flare-ups made me feel like I was on fire.
I was at the end of my rope."

When a friend suggested marijuana, she was shocked. Desperate, she
tried it. It warmed and relaxed her muscles and allowed her to sleep
and eat. She is now able to take her dog on a walk to the park with
her two boys. The woman who had been prescribed a wheelchair even got
back on her sports bike.

"But I'm real nervous," she adds. "I've got kids. If I get caught, I
can go to jail. But this allows me to be a wife and a mother in my home."

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act is about patients. It is
about medical options. It is about compassion.

The public is ahead of the policy-makers on this issue. Statewide
polling has shown a 75.7% approval of medical marijuana. People who
have watched loved ones in pain and dying do not view this as a partisan issue.

In November, the historically cautious and conservative American
Medical Association shifted its policy in favor of studying
marijuana's medicinal uses. President Barack Obama announced a
federal hands-off policy toward state laws on medical marijuana. And
Gov. Jim Doyle has said he would sign a medical marijuana bill, as
long as a doctor's written consent is required.

I'm in California right now, and while I'm here, I will visit a
compassion center dispensary and ask questions about what has worked
and what can be improved. California was the first state to pass such
a law back in 1996 so it has been working through problems. It is
important to note that our legislation is markedly different.

We are advocating strong restrictions so it does not offer
recreational access to marijuana.

Our bill provides a medical necessity defense to avoid prosecution
for someone obtaining or growing a small, regulated amount of
marijuana with a doctor's written permission.

Patients must obtain the doctor's recommendation, a license and pay a
fee of $250. A compassionate center must pay an annual fee of $5,000
and meet other regulations. Both will be regulated by the state
Department of Health Services

This bill has been rewritten, evolved and improved over time as 13
other states now permit access to medical marijuana and another 17
are actively debating it.

Much of our language replicates Michigan's law, which passed with 63%
of the vote on a ballot last November. We also took language from
Rhode Island that has become the nationwide standard when it comes to
nonprofit distribution organizations.

Medical conditions that qualify a patient include cancer, glaucoma,
AIDS/HIV, Crohn's disease, a Hepatitis C, Alzheimer's disease,
post-traumatic stress disorder and several other chronic or
debilitating diseases that cause wasting away, severe pain or nausea,
seizures or severe muscle spasms.

The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act is named after a woman
suffering from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (a disorder that attacks joints
and tissue), who led patients on a 210-mile trek from Mondovi to
Madison in her wheelchair.

What Jacki pushed for - then and now - is health care reform. It's a
humane approach to helping the sick, and it's time we show compassion
and permit this medical option to help people like Jacki and Teresa.

The Senate and Assembly health committees will hold a public hearing
on the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the
Capitol, Room 412 E. We expect to hear from many people whose quality
of life could be made better by passage of this bill, and I invite
you to join us.